Preston

100. PRESTON.

(O.S. 6 in. xii. S.W.)

Secular

(1). Temple Dinsley, near St. Martin's Church and 2½ miles S. of Hitchin, is an 18th-century house, now being enlarged, which stands on the site of an earlier building. Dinsley is in Domesday Book as a manor belonging to the Crown; during the 12th century it was granted to the Knights Templars, and when the Order was dissolved in 1312 the manor passed into the hands of the Knights Hospitallers, who held it until the suppression of the monasteries; it was then granted to Sir Ralph Sadleir and remained the property of the Sadleir family until 1712.

Among the relics turned up from the soil, besides many human skulls, etc., is part of a 13th-century Coffin Lid, on which is a long cross in low relief; the head of the cross is almost obliterated: on another stone is the stepped base of a thin Latin cross, but the two stones do not appear to fit: another coffin lid has been placed in the Church of St. Martin; on it is a cross in relief, with a foliated head and long stem, of which the foot is missing; the sides of the lid are hollow-chamfered.

(2). Cottages, in the village, several, built of brick, are of the 17th century; the roofs are tiled.

Condition—Fairly good.